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Home Information Packs (HIPS) are now a year old this week. The past year certainly has been controversial at times for HIP packs as the legislation has been rolled out; which lets be honest was to be expected. Home information packs have been reported upon as often is the case in the UK press with a negative slant. The legislation has unfortunately become a ‘political football’ with the debate showing little signs in slowing.

Home information Packs were designed to provide information to the home buyer, speed up transaction times and reduce the number of failed completions. Home information Packs or as they will be known Home Reports are due to be implemented in Scotland from December this year.

Some of the headlines connected with HIPS over the past year have been at times pure fantasy and showed little grasp of the contents within the packs and the true effects they are having within the housing market. Do we truly believe providing information at the start of the house selling process rather once an offer is accepted at an average cost of £350 can affect the housing market in the way we are experiencing at present.

Lets remember; currently the only additional required document in the Home Information Pack is the Energy Performance Certificate (EPC) with the remainder of the pack being made up of the searches, details of title, lease, index and a sales statement that would of had to be done by the property lawyer. The main difference is that we now have this information in place at the beginning of the transaction which enables us to have a better insight into the property in question and allows a more informed decisions in whether to make an offer. Our homes are in most cases the biggest purchase of our life, what other item do you purchase or make an offer on without any information? This is what we would return to doing without the HIP.

With the implementation of HIPs we have seen positive impacts being made including:

Reduced transaction times – Connell’s solicitors have reported by an average of 12 days

Less people testing the market with no real intentions of selling

Lowered search costs and speeded up response times of these providers

Information lessening the chance of a nasty suprise at the last minute preventing the sale completing

The average cost of £350 per HIP is generally asked for as an upfront payment by most providers. HIP-Consultant.co.uk can offer substantial reductions on the average cost and now also able to offer a 9 months deffered payment option, please feel free to contact us for further information.

HIP-Consultant.co.uk continue to see the benefits to the housing market as do many professional organisations involved with the process. We believe that there are areas that could be improved as with most things and we are actively involved in highlighting and addressing these areas.

The Uk property market has a solid base with Home Information Packs (HIPS) in providing information to the home buyer, now is the time for this to evolve further and add to its offering and reap further benefits.